The recent TikTok trend of a ‘girl’s’ girl has been blowing up across reels; personally, I never realised that I was a girl’s girl till the term itself was coined. But now that I do know what it is, I can never imagine my life as anything other than one of a girl’s girl. Here’s why.
- Exponentially larger closet
As someone who always gets excited by clothes but struggles to fit them all into my budget (and the Ashoka closet), I never feel like I’ll never have enough. Packing for Ashoka this semester was a struggle, as I wanted to carry so much more than the closet can hold. However, being a girl’s girl, my closet is automatically larger when I’m living on campus! Outfits are decided keeping in mind 4 wardrobes. Haven’t had the chance to collect that pink top from laundry? Not a problem! Someone will have something similar. Want to try out a maxi skirt look, but not sure it’ll suit you? That’s okay, you can always borrow one for a few days and see if you vibe with it! I might wake up most mornings to someone already in my room, rummaging through my clothes, but that’s okay because I know I can do the same.
- Somebody to do your hair – or nails
Certain occasions call for dressing up – be it a date with someone special, or birthdays, or just a random day of classes you want to look cute for. There’s always someone who’s excited to sit you down in front of the mirror and give you a cute blowout; and there’s always going to be someone who’ll do your cuticles and then paint your nails.
- Late night /morning after debrief sessions
Thursday nights wouldn’t be Thursday nights if we didn’t end up in a room at 4 am for a debrief session, with each of us narrating the wildly different nights we had – someone’s going through a relationship crisis, someone’s too intoxicated to keep their eyes open, someone has tea to spill. The night is filled with singing Mamma Mia songs, trips to the vending machine and heads in each other’s laps while we debrief. Becoming a girl’s girl in college taught me that everything can and should be analyzed; nothing is too small. Are we sure that the girl in Aroma didn’t give us a side eye? Are we sure he didn’t reply to our text because he was in classes the entire day? Professor didn’t smile at me today when I answered in class, are we sure she likes me? Every video or reel that I’ve seen on debriefing sessions talks about doing it after an eventful night, but we do it every day, for everything. If I don’t know what coffee my friends got and at what time, my day is incomplete.
- No such thing as TMI
This brings me to the next point – that there is no such thing as too much information with the girls. Whether it has to do with the fun little rendezvous you had with your boyfriend or the trip you took to the washroom – we want all the details. I think I’ll have to cut off the examples for this point here – after all, the TMI is only reserved for my girls.
5. Taking pictures
The biggest struggle of taking pictures, for me, is getting the correct angles with the correct lighting. Honestly, it’s impossible to explain to someone that I need the sun to fall on my right side and that I need the camera to be tilted slightly down, but not too down. It’s impossible, except with the girls. We know which of us need the sun for cute pictures and which of us look the cutest with the flash on at night. We know each other’s angles, each other’s poses; we know to photograph her from the right side to show off her tattoo, and to tell her what exactly to do with her hands. Delhi trips end with a DSLR of 200+ pictures from just a single day. Instagram is flooded with the same pictures – only in each, there’s a different girl. There’s nothing more wholesome than having your best friend take pictures of you for 30 minutes straight as she comes in to adjust your top and tell you where to look. The smile on my face in my pictures is always at her and her determination to get the perfect pictures of me.
6. Supportive friendships
I grew up in school with girl friends who gatekept their favourite clothing stores and nail salons; girls who always said “Oh I’ve not started studying, sorry I can’t help you’ even when they have; friends in general, not even sharing which colleges they’re applying to. I grew up with no friends to celebrate my achievements; The winner always got bragging rights – enough to make everyone else jealous – but never received any praise or encouragement. You couldn’t ask someone for help in an assignment, because the chances of them genuinely helping you instead of misguiding you were very low. Today, I have friends who sit by my side and help me type out my essays when I’m overwhelmed with work; they bring me coffee when I’ve not left RH2 commons in 14 hours because I’m studying; they will hold me while I cry about not understanding calculus, and read my economics textbook so they can teach it to me despite being psych majors. To come back at the end of each day to girls as excited about my achievements as I am makes me feel as though I’m coming home to family.